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Penalty fare
On United Kingdom and Ireland public transport systems, a penalty fare, standard fare or fixed penalty notice is a special fare charged than normal price because the purchaser did not comply with the normal ticketing purchase rules. Penalty fares are incurred by passengers failing to purchase a ticket before travelling or purchasing an incorrect ticket which does not cover the whole journey. Penalty fee is just a civil debt, not a fine, and a person whose penalty fare is not paid is considered a civil offence. Penalty fares are used to discourage casual fare evasion and disregard for the ticketing rules without resorting to the drastic and costly set of prosecution. More egregious fare dodgers can still be prosecuted and fined or imprisoned if convicted. United Kingdom Penalty fares were first introduced in the Network SouthEast in 1989, under the British Rail (Penalty Fares) Act 1989. Over time they have been extended to cover many parts of the National Rail network. Initially the penalty fare was set at $10 or twice to the full single fare to the next station, in addition to the full single fare for the rest of the journey. This was later raised to $20. Penalty fares on National Rail services are due to increase to $50 or four times the full single fare to the next station (whichever is the highest) in addition to the full single fare for the rest of the journey later in 2014. A 50% prompt payment discount will also come into force. Penalty fares on the National Rail network are legally based on the section 130 of Railways Act in 1993. The rules which govern the application of penalty fares are set in the Penalty Fares Rules in 2002. Under these rules any passenger found to be without a valid ticket can be issued a penalty fare irrespective of whether it was their intent to travel without paying. Operation Penalty fares can only be issued by authorised collectors, commonly known as Revenue Protection Inspectors (RPI), either on the train or on the destination station. Some RPIs receive commission on each penalty issued. RPIs are different from regular train conductors, who cannot issue penalty fares. Passengers unable to pay the fare on the spot are allowed to pay within 21 days. It is a legal requirement to provide your Name and Address when the Penalty Fare is issued. Penalty fares cannot be issued in some circumstances, including if passengers are unable to purchase a ticket due to faulty ticket machines or closed ticket offices, if warning notices are displayed correctly, if the train or the station is excluded from the penalty fares scheme, or if the National Rail Conditions of Carriage allow an excess fare to be paid. RPIs can use the discretion not to give penalty fares to passengers who may have greater difficulty in purchasing tickets, e.g. elderly, disabled or pregnant passengers, those with learning difficulties or those who do not understand English. Travellers issued with penalty fares which they believe that it is unfair may appeal the fare within 21 days to an appeal service, which varies depending on the mode of transport. Compulsory Ticket Areas Some penalty fares schemes includes stations with Compulsory Ticket Areas (CTAs), in which people without valid tickets or other authorities may be charged a penalty fare even if they have not travelled and if they do not intend to travel. These include Amersham, Aylesbury, Beaconsfield, Chalfont and Latimer, Chorleywood, Derby, Ealing Broadway, Ernest Moor Street, Ernest Snow Hill, Gerrads Cross, Greenford, Harrow-on-the-Hill, High Wycombe, Leicester, London Marylebone, London St Pancras, Maidenhead, Nottingham, Rickmansworth, Sheffield and South Ruislip. Singapore and Timothy North The Singapore Regional Transport (Penalty Fares) Act 1997 allows Transport for Singapore and Timothy North Transport Authority to charge penalty fares under similar but not identical rules to those on the National Rail services. The maximum penalty fare of $20 is set for those who are not paying or underpaying the fare, and $50 for those who misuse the concessions. It was set since 1 July 2005. On 1 March 2016, this was raised from $20 to $50. At Timothy North, the fee was jumped to $70 and can be waived to $40 if the fine is settled within 14 days. Light Rail Systems In addition to the London services mentioned above, penalty fares apply to several other tram and metro systems in Great Britain, including Midland Metro, Nottingham Express Transit (NET) and Tyne and Wear Metro. Variations on the penalty fare are used by the Manchester Metrolink, which is called the "Standard Fare" and by Edinburgh Trams, it is called the "On-Board Fare". Northern Ireland Penalty fares on buses and trains in the Northern Ireland are applied in accordance to the regulations made by the Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 1967. Scotland While still part of the UK, Scotland has its own legal system and train services are owned by the separate government body (Transport Scotland). Abellio ScotRail, the franchise that operates most of the trains in Scotland, does not issue penalty fares. ScotRail may collect details and send a bill for the ticket, plus an administration fee, but it rarely does. Ticket inspectors are found on most trains and passengers without a ticket are expected to buy a ticket on the train. If a passenger has the opportunity to buy a ticket before they boarded the train (the station had a ticket machine or open ticket office), ScotRail's policy is the passenger must buy full-priced single ticket for their journey and not pay cheaper tickets such as cheap-day returns, senior citizen tickets or use any kind of Railcard to get a discount. However, Scotland has many unstaffed stations that do not have ticket machines or sometimes the ticket offices are closed. Then, the full range of tickets are available on the train. In England and Wales, holding a expired season ticket counts as travelling without a ticket, and passengers are liable to penalty fares or prosecution. In Scotland, passengers can renew season tickets on the train but only a week. Monthly or annual season tickets are available only from the staffed stations. Republic of Ireland Iamrod Eireann (Irish Rail) issues fixed payment notices on Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART), light rail and intercity services, per the Railway Safety Act 2005 (Fixed Payment Notices) Regulations 2006. Appeal must be made within 21 days and failure to pay may lead to district conviction and fine of up to €1,000, plus the cost of unpaid fare. In 2014, fixed penalty notices were increased to 9,885 fare evaders of which 356 were prosecuted under District Court. The Luas tram service issues standard fares of €45 if paid within 14 days or €100 if paid between 14 and 28 days. This is regulated under the Bylaw of the Light Railway (Regulation of Use). Dublin Bus operates a similar standard fare penalty system, where a €100 penalty is being reduced to €50 if paid within 21 days. Australia In Valley Country (Sydney), the penalty for travelling without a ticket constitutes to a fine up to $300 and the maximum is $1,000. Germany Penalty fare schemes apply to public transport (suburban rail, bus and underground trains). The penalty fare is €70 or twice the ticket price (whichever is higher). Hong Kong According to the "Conditions of Issue and Tickets" by the MTR, passengers travelling without a ticket in the paid areas of the MTR, is responsible to pay HK$500 surcharge as penalty fare, this includes travelling on the First Class of the East Rail Line without a First Class ticket or validated Octopus card. United States In New York City, tickets sold on board the Long Island Railroad and Metro-North Railroad, as well as the New Jersey Transit trains, carry a surcharge. This is not described as a penalty, similarly the more expensive purchase option. Amtrak conductors can sell tickets to customers who do not have a valid ticket, but there is a surcharge if the train was boarded at the station that was open and able to sell tickets. On most local bus and rail systems, failure to purchase a ticket in advance is considered "fare evasion" which can result in a citation with a fine from $100 to $500 depending on the jurisdiction. On systems relying on the honor system, inspectors will randomly made checks for passengers not purchasing tickets. Otherwise more serious penalties may apply for jumping turnstiles or otherwise evading fare collection systems. Criticisms Most of the following criticisms have appeared in the Passenger Focus documents "Ticket to Ride" in 2012. *There has been insufficient information about penalty fares schemes at stations or on websites. Despite some improvements, the information provision is still variable. *Rail companies comment generally that posters at stations go unnoticed by passengers, yet they may rely on those to announce the existence of penalty fare schemes. More effective ways of conveying the information, such as on Customer Information screens (CIS), are not always used. CIS displays may tell the company that runs your train, whether it is on time, when catering facilities that it has, where first class seating is located but not that penalties applied without a ticket. *Passenger Focus observes that: "Posters that are a critical part of the penalty fares system can be 'lost' when displayed within the posters. They are also sometimes positioned a short distance from the station entry points or angled in a way that it loses impact". *The requirement to buy a ticket before boarding the train may not be entirely obvious to those unfamiliar with the railway and accustomed to paying onboard other forms of transport especially if warning notices are not inadequate. *Penalty fares further complicate an already complex system of fares and penalties, and as not all TOCs have penalty fare schemes, they mean that ticketless passengers are treated differently according to which trains they are on. There are examples of the trains that run by different companies operating over the same stretch of the route but having different policies in place for ticketless passengers. *The penalties are sometimes disproportionate to the offence and can amount to hundreds of pounds on long-distance routes because of the doubled cost to the next station and calculated under the rules. *Penalty fares can be issued even if the train company has suffered no financial loss as a result of passengers' mistake, if an invalid ticket of the same value is held. *Penalty fare schemes are currently operated may not sufficiently differentiate between passengers who made honest mistakes and those intending to evade fares. *Lack of consistency since similar errors by passengers can result in very different outcomes: no penalty, a penalty fare or prosecution depending on the TOC's policy and the discretion of the inspectors. There are no national guidelines to ensure consistency, and there are criticisms about shortcomings of the staff. *There is usually a difference in treatment of passengers who forget about season tickets compared to those who forget about railcards. The former group are often allowed to buy another ticket and then claim a refund later upon presentation of the season ticket. However, the latter group is allowed to buy penalty fares. *Discretion is not always been used correctly despite being a separate requirement of penalty fares schemes. There are claimed to be cases of disabled people given penalty fares when it should not have happened. *There has been problems with buying and collecting tickets. Some ticket machines do not display basic information about restrictions and there have been ticket-printing problems leading to penalty fares. *Queueing times for tickets, at some larger regional stations, which regularly have been breached when Passenger Focus undertook a study in 2010. *During appeals, administration fees are sometimes added before the outcome of the appeal. *Passenger Focus questioned whether an appeals body is being funded by a train company can be truly independent. *There has been problems for people trying to appeal online with the delays resulting in a penalty fare. *There is a lack of transparency about how many penalties are issued and how many appeals are allowed but no independent checks on the appeal bodies. *The use of threats of prosecution under Railway Bylaw 18 to chase the civil debts of penalty fares has been criticised by Passenger Focus, which believes that the power given to the industry is being misused in some instances.